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Published 23/12/2014
This year has been a brilliant year for making a difference to farm animals. Here are a few of our highlights.
The end of the barren battery cage for hens in Europe
We fought long and hard to get rid of the barren battery cage in Europe. We asked for help to hold law-breaking nations to account. More than 50,000 of our supporters took action and as a result 27 out of 28 EU countries have now got rid of these cruel cages. Just Greece stands in the way of a barren battery cage-free Europe for hens and we will continue to lobby for an end to this cruel confinement in Europe in 2015.
Hope in our fight against the Gadhimai festival
We made a difference for animals in Nepal. Along with local groups, we campaigned against the Gadhimai slaughter festival. Sadly, it still went ahead, but the Nepalese government stopped funding this inhumane mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals and the number slaughtered was reduced by at least 75%.
The truth about factory farming told
Our biggest ever global investigation into factory farming was delivered through our CEO Philip Lymbery’s book: Farmageddon: the true cost of cheap meat, which received widespread acclaim and has now been reprinted six times.
Reaching 10 million people
We didn’t allow our ban from advertising on British TV to silence us. We were determined to make a film that would shake the foundations of factory farming. More than 10 million people have now watched The Secrets of Food Marketing through different channels.
A better life for more than 287 million animals
Our Food Business team works with leading food companies across Europe and beyond, encouraging them to commit to better farm animal welfare. More than 287 million farm animals are set to benefit each year thanks to the policies of all our Good Farm Animal Welfare Award winners.
Appalling Karantina slaughterhouse shut down
We exposed the horrific treatment of animals at Karantina slaughterhouse in Lebanon. More than 130,000 of our supporters took action to shut this abattoir down. In November we achieved our goal. We will continue to work with the authorities in Lebanon to secure lasting change to slaughter practices in the country and beyond.
The reality of ‘humane’ chicken in the US exposed
Americans eat more chicken per person than anyone else. Brave farmer Craig Watts opened his factory farm to us to expose the reality of life for ‘humanely raised’ US chickens. Craig’s story was watched by more than one million people in just one week and received widespread media coverage from the New York Times to the Metro in the UK. Together with our supporters, we are giving consumers, farmers, and chickens, a voice.
Honest food labelling on the agenda in Europe
Our Labelling Matters mascot, Rosa the chicken, undertook a 39-day, 21-country journey rallying support for clear and honest labelling of chicken meat across Europe. This incredible journey featured on national TV stations, made the pages of over 100 news websites, magazines and newspapers, and culminated in the presentation to the EU Parliament of a petition calling for honest labelling of chicken meat signed by 85,000 EU citizens.
Making a difference in China: home to half the world’s pigs
China is home to 680 million pigs and is seeing an explosion in intensive pig farming. We have been working with a group of pioneering Chinese famers to help them adopt higher welfare standards, such as introducing alternatives to caged systems like sow stalls where pigs can’t even turn around.
The work we have done this year will improve the lives of 750,000 pigs every year. It is an incredibly important start, which, with the help of our amazing supporters, we intend to build on in 2015.
